INSECTS 229 



seated preference for the normal colour of the Order to which 

 the Leptalides belong." It is scarcely necessary to criticise 

 this suggestion seriously. It obviously affords no explana- 

 tion, and we have no reason to believe in the existence of 

 the deep-seated preference, which, if it existed, has in some 

 cases preserved the males entirely unchanged, and in others 

 has allowed them to adopt the same mimicking appearance 

 as the females. We have at present no evidence that the 

 sense of sight plays any important part in the pairing of 

 butterflies. 



To refer to an example. In the hall of the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington there are displayed 

 some specimens illustrating mimicry among Indian butterflies. 

 The Euploeinse are generally uneatable, and a genus Salatura 

 is illustrated with certain species of Elymnias which mimic 

 it. Elymnias cottonis occurs in the Andaman Islands, where 

 Salatura is unknown, and there the two sexes of the 

 Elymnias are nearly alike and unmodified, that is to say, 

 they have the usual characters of the Satyrides, the family 

 to which Elymnias belongs. But in Northern India Elymnias 

 cottonis is replaced by E. undularis, the female of which 

 resembles the distasteful Salatura genestia, but the male is 

 not disguised. 



In this case the habits of the two sexes are not mentioned 

 on the explanatory labels. It is very commonly stated, in 

 the original memoirs in which cases of mimicry are described, 

 that the mimicking forms are found in company with the 

 mimicked. Usually the pattern forms are conspicuous, 

 numerous, and fly openly in flocks. When a number are 

 collected by the entomologist he finds on subsequent study 

 of his specimens that among them in small proportion are 

 specimens of the mimicking or disguised species. This is 

 the fact which I desire to emphasise, that the disguised forms 

 are captured in the company of those they imitate. This 



